‘Navigating a World of Rights’ – new report shares findings from Who Cares? Scotland’s participation work

Date: 13th January 2021
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Family Environment and Alternative Care, Education, including vocational education, Civil Rights and Freedoms

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The report covers why members feel it is important for their human rights to be protected in law, policy, and practice. The report also includes recommendations for change.

Key points covered in the report include:

• Care Experienced children identified difficulties recognising what a rights abuse looks like in their lives and knowing how to challenge it.
• All children must learn about rights in school and focus should be on how to practically uphold rights and recognise what rights mean to children’s own lives.
• Care Experienced members of all ages unanimously supported the need for Care Experienced people to have rights protections throughout their lifetime.
• The use of independent advocacy and accessible, child-friendly complaints mechanisms were supported as alternative routes to court action.
• Care Experienced members felt that children and young people should be a part of the process holding organisations to account on rights promises to ensure transparency.

To fulfil these points and others, Care Experienced members suggested the following changes were needed:  

• Create a rights-focused public education initiative, national curriculum and tailored training service with information on how child and human rights can be upheld in practice, and what this would mean for children and young people in their own lives.
• Ensure rights protections in law protect Care Experienced people of all ages and Care Experienced adults can seek redress from the state for the legacy of rights not being protected while in care.
• Invest in a wide spectrum of options to allow access to justice, with a focus on creating child-friendly complaints mechanisms.
• Invest in independent advocacy and specialist support for all individuals, prioritising groups who may need additional support such as the Care Experienced community.
• Ensure children and young people are involved meaningfully in how progress reports are created on the effectiveness of human rights legislation, such as the incorporation of the UNCRC.
• Commission an independent body to report robustly on the effectiveness of child and human rights in Scotland, with a focus on improving the outcomes for the most marginalised groups of the population, including specific reference to the Care Experienced community.

Read the summary of the report here.

Read the full report here.  

Watch a short video summarising the report here.